Jefferson Co. Historic Landmarks Commission National Historic Landmarks Nomination Grant

Since 1803, the Jefferson County Courthouse has occupied its present site in Charles Town, West Virginia (Virginia prior to 1863).  The second courthouse built on the property was completed in 1836 and was the site of the treason trial of radical abolitionist John Brown and his co-conspirators following the 1859 raid of the United States armory at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. Brown’s raid and subsequent trial and execution are widely regarded as seminal events leading to the outbreak of the Civil War. Unfortunately, because the 1836 courthouse was severely damaged during the Civil War and largely reconstructed in 1872, the current building does not retain sufficient integrity to the 1859 trial of John Brown.

The present courthouse was completed in 1872 and appears to retain much of its historic character from the late-nineteenth and early twentieth-century period.  In 1922, the 1872 courthouse hosted another trial that captured the attention of the nation. The case was the treason, murder, and conspiracy trials of 120 coal miners from West Virginia’s southern coal fields who, in 1921, took part in the coal mining wars and more specifically in the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed labor conflict in American history.

In 2017, the Jefferson County Historic Landmarks Commission requested the National Historic Landmarks (NHL) program provide a preliminary evaluation of potential NHL eligibility for the courthouse.  The program staff concluded that the Jefferson County Courthouse warrants further consideration for NHL designation.  The property has the potential to meet NHL Criterion 1 for its important associations with the West Virginia coal mining wars and more specifically with the Battle of Blair Mountain and the resulting legal trials. The trials held in the Jefferson County Courthouse were the subject of national attention and widespread condemnation because the prosecution was nearly entirely funded by the coal companies. The first four defendants were tried in Jefferson County; two were convicted of second degree murder and one of treason.  These were the only convictions in the trials. Later trials were moved to other eastern West Virginia counties (Morgan, Greenbrier, and Fayette Counties) in order to escape the pro-union sentiments that dominated the southern and western parts of the state. 

The NHL nomination for the courthouse will explore the following questions in order to demonstrate the property’s important links to American labor history:

• What is the importance of Blair Mountain and the West Virginia coal mine wars? Reference should be made to the National Register and NHL nominations for Blair Mountain Battlefield, Matewan Historic District, Mother Jones Prison (demolished) ,as well as the NHL American Labor Theme Study (final draft March 2017) which will provide the overarching context for evaluating the property.
• How did the trials held at this courthouse have an impact on the struggle for laborers’ rights? How were these trials (others were held in other counties) important in the legal or public relations outcome of the labor movement?
• How did the trials capture the attention of the nation? How did the news reports of the battle and the subsequent trials raise public awareness of the labor conditions in the West Virginia coal mines? Did it heighten public sympathies?
• How do the events in West Virginia tie in to the larger national labor history narrative?

The NHL nomination for the Jefferson County Courthouse will document the physical characteristics of the building through an architectural description and inventory of resources on the property, including landscape features and characteristics.  The nomination will include a general property development history, and will develop scholarly arguments for why the property possesses exceptional value or quality for illustrating or interpreting the heritage of the United States. 

The nomination will provide historic context adequate to make a clear, convincing, and concise argument for national significance in one or more areas of significance (expected NHL Criterion 1 [association with events or trends important in the nation’s history]).  The focus of the nomination should be on the significance statements, not on creating a complete narrative of the building’s design and construction.  The research and evaluation should be adequate to identify events or activities of clear significance to national history. It need not cover all events of local and statewide significance.